Multi-touch ABM campaigns help you engage B2B buyers across multiple channels and touchpoints, creating a clearer picture of what drives conversions. Unlike single-touch models, this approach credits every interaction – like LinkedIn posts, emails, and demos – throughout the buyer’s journey. For example, reallocating 40% of a LinkedIn ad budget to retargeting reduced acquisition costs by 38% and shortened sales cycles by two weeks.
Using Closely, you can manage these campaigns seamlessly. The platform combines LinkedIn and email outreach, AI-powered personalization, and advanced lead scoring to target high-value accounts effectively. Here’s how to get started:
- Identify key accounts: Focus on companies with growth indicators, active decision-makers, and complementary tools.
- Organize data: Clean and segment prospect lists by role, location, and company size.
- Set up your tools: Optimize LinkedIn profiles, authenticate email domains, and sync CRMs.
- Build campaigns: Use Closely’s templates to create personalized, multi-channel sequences.
- Monitor and refine: Track metrics like reply rates and adjust messaging or timing for better engagement.
Develop an ABM strategy that predictably generates sales pipeline with larger enterprises
Setting Up Your Multi-Touch ABM Campaign
To create a strong multi-touch ABM campaign, start by identifying high-potential accounts, organizing your data, and making sure your technical setup is ready to go. These steps are crucial for ensuring your campaign targets the right audience and generates qualified leads rather than wasting resources on unproductive prospects. Once your foundation is solid, you’ll be ready to move forward with confidence.
Finding High-Value Accounts
The success of ABM lies in targeting the right accounts. Instead of spreading your efforts thin, focus on prospects who are most likely to become high-value customers.
To narrow your focus, filter accounts by criteria like company size, revenue growth (at least 15% year-over-year), key industries, active decision-makers on LinkedIn, and technology compatibility. For mid-market campaigns, target organizations with 50 to 500 employees, while enterprise campaigns should focus on companies with 500 or more employees. These businesses often have the budgets and decision-making structures necessary for ABM success.
Pay attention to companies making headlines with funding announcements or market expansions. These are strong indicators that they have both the financial resources and the motivation to explore new solutions.
Concentrate on 3-5 industries where your product or service can deliver measurable outcomes. For instance, if you offer marketing automation tools, prioritize industries like SaaS, professional services, and e-commerce rather than manufacturing or healthcare.
Additionally, seek out companies with C-suite executives, VPs, or directors who are active on LinkedIn. Whether they’re sharing posts, engaging with industry content, or maintaining detailed profiles, this activity suggests they’re open to professional outreach.
Finally, target businesses that use tools complementary to your offering or outdated solutions you can replace. This insight allows you to craft more relevant messaging and address specific pain points.
Organizing and Cleaning Prospect Data
Clean, well-organized data is essential for avoiding bounced emails and irrelevant outreach. Start by segmenting prospects based on their role, seniority, location, and company size. For example, create separate lists for C-level executives, VPs, directors, and managers, as each group requires tailored messaging and outreach strategies. Geographic segmentation ensures your communication reaches recipients at the right time, while company size segmentation lets you adjust your value proposition accordingly.
Verify and standardize contact information to maintain the integrity of your lists. Invalid emails not only waste time but can harm your sender reputation and reduce overall deliverability.
Enhance your prospect data by adding custom fields for campaign-specific insights. These might include recent company news, shared connections, or identified challenges. This extra layer of context allows for more personalized and relevant messaging.
Campaign Setup Requirements
Once your prospect list is ready, make sure your technical infrastructure is set up to support seamless, personalized outreach across multiple channels.
Technical Setup Checklist:
- Optimize your LinkedIn profile with a professional headshot and a compelling headline.
- Authenticate your email domain (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) to improve deliverability.
- Integrate your CRM for real-time data synchronization.
- Configure time zones to ensure messages are sent during business hours (9:00 AM to 11:00 AM and 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM local time).
- Include unsubscribe options to comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
- Stay within LinkedIn’s limits for connection requests and messages.
If you’re working with a team, coordination is key. Establish clear rules for assigning prospects, approving messaging, and handling responses. Tools like Closely’s team management features can help avoid duplicate outreach and maintain consistent messaging.
Lastly, monitor campaign performance closely. Set up alerts for issues like high bounce rates, low deliverability, or account restrictions. Catching these problems early will help you make adjustments before they escalate and impact your entire ABM strategy.
Creating a Multi-Touch ABM Campaign in Closely
With your prospect data sorted and your technical setup in place, it’s time to dive into building a multi-touch ABM campaign. This is where all that preparation transforms into personalized sequences designed to engage high-value accounts. The goal? To create campaigns that feel tailored and relevant. Let’s explore how Closely’s Campaign Manager can help you coordinate these touchpoints seamlessly.
Using Closely’s Campaign Manager
Once your prospect data is ready, Closely’s Campaign Manager becomes your go-to tool for turning plans into action. It’s designed to manage multi-touch sequences that combine LinkedIn connection requests, personalized messages, InMails, and email outreach. The platform’s automation features allow you to coordinate these efforts while still keeping each interaction personalized.
Start by setting up a new campaign and choosing the multi-touch ABM template. This template provides a step-by-step structure for engaging prospects with a series of well-timed touchpoints over several weeks. For example, your sequence might kick off with a LinkedIn connection request. Once accepted, you can follow up with a personalized message and then alternate between LinkedIn and email communications to keep the engagement flowing without overwhelming your prospects.
Adjust your campaign settings to reflect your audience’s preferences and stay within LinkedIn’s guidelines. Closely’s smart scheduling feature spaces out your touchpoints for optimal engagement, ensuring your messages don’t come across as too frequent or clustered. Additionally, the account-based grouping option lets you coordinate outreach to multiple decision-makers within the same company while keeping each interaction unique.
Creating Personalized Messages with AI Templates
Closely’s AI-powered templates take generic outreach and turn it into something that feels personal and engaging. The AI pulls from prospect details, company updates, and industry trends to craft messages that resonate with your target accounts.
Start with the platform’s industry-specific templates as a base. These templates are built on proven messaging strategies but leave room for customization. The AI can weave in details like recent company news, shared connections, or relevant industry events to create natural conversation starters. This level of personalization can make a big difference, often leading to higher engagement and better conversion rates.
When writing your message sequence, aim for a conversational and concise tone. For example, your first LinkedIn message after a connection request might focus on building rapport rather than diving into a pitch. Here’s an idea:
"Thanks for connecting, [Name]. I saw that [Company] recently expanded into the European market – congratulations on the growth! I’d love to hear how you’re tackling the operational challenges that come with such a big move."
As you follow up, gradually introduce more value and subtly tie in your solution. Mentioning relevant events – like industry conferences, funding updates, or market trends – shows you’re paying attention to their world, not just sending out mass messages. Tailor your outreach to their interests; for instance, if they frequently post about marketing automation, reference that in your message. This thoughtful approach often leads to better response rates and more meaningful interactions.
Scheduling Multi-Channel Outreach
Once you’ve crafted personalized messages, timing becomes key. Scheduling outreach at the right moments ensures your efforts land when prospects are most likely to engage. Closely’s scheduling tools make it easy to manage LinkedIn and email outreach while respecting your prospects’ time.
Plan your initial outreach for peak engagement hours – usually mid-morning or mid-afternoon in the prospect’s local time zone. Create a sequence that starts by building rapport, then gradually introduces insights and use cases. This keeps your outreach fresh and gives you multiple chances to capture their interest.
Space out your touchpoints to maintain momentum without overwhelming prospects. For instance, you might send a LinkedIn connection request on day one, follow up with a personalized message a few days later, and then share valuable content via email. Afterward, you could send a check-in message before ending with a clear call-to-action. Closely’s multichannel coordination ensures your LinkedIn and email messaging work together. For example, if you share a case study on LinkedIn, your next email could reference it and dive deeper into the results, creating a consistent narrative across platforms.
Keep an eye on your campaign’s performance and adjust based on what works. If you notice higher response rates at certain times, align more of your outreach to those windows. Closely’s analytics make it easy to spot these trends and fine-tune your schedule.
Finally, automate follow-ups based on how prospects respond. For example, if someone doesn’t reply to your LinkedIn message, trigger a follow-up email. Or, if they engage with shared content, move them into a more focused sales sequence. This automation ensures you’re staying on top of every opportunity without letting any engaged prospect slip through the cracks.
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Running and Managing Your Campaign
Once your multi-touch campaign is set up, the next step is to manage and fine-tune its performance. Success hinges on consistent monitoring, timely responses to prospects, and compliance with platform rules. Closely’s dashboard and management tools make this process smoother and more efficient – using them wisely can make all the difference.
Starting and Tracking Campaigns
Launching your campaign is simple, but the real work begins with tracking its performance. Closely offers a robust, centralized dashboard that lets you monitor all your campaigns and team activities in one place [1][2]. No need to juggle multiple tools – everything you need is right there.
The dashboard provides real-time updates on key metrics like email and LinkedIn opens, clicks, connection requests, reply rates, and bounce rates [2]. These insights help you quickly identify trends and adjust your strategy. For example, if engagement dips, it might be time to tweak your messaging or refine your audience targeting.
For a high-level view, the Activity Dashboard shows overall campaign activity, while Campaign Analytics allows you to dig deeper into specific performance details [3]. These tools highlight which touchpoints are driving the most engagement, giving you actionable insights to improve future campaigns.
Setting Up Follow-Ups and Managing Responses
Closely simplifies follow-ups by automating them within its smart multichannel sequences. This feature helps you maintain steady communication with prospects without the headache of manual tracking [2]. You can set follow-ups to trigger automatically based on a prospect’s actions – or lack of response – making sure no lead slips through the cracks.
Managing replies is just as seamless. Closely’s unified inbox collects all responses from LinkedIn and email in one place, so you never miss a conversation [1][2]. This integrated view is especially helpful for account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns. As one user, Sebastian, a verified reviewer in media production, noted:
"Also, having the inbox integrated within the tool is very nice, bringing everything together in one dashboard." [3]
When handling responses, aim for quick and personalized follow-ups. The unified inbox keeps the conversation context at your fingertips, making it easier to align your replies with the tone and goals of your campaign.
Following LinkedIn Policies
While managing your campaign, don’t overlook the importance of sticking to LinkedIn’s rules. Adhering to these guidelines not only protects your account but also ensures your outreach feels genuine and professional. Personalize each connection request instead of relying on repetitive templates. If someone opts out or requests no further contact, respect their wishes immediately to avoid issues.
Keep an eye on engagement metrics for signs your outreach might be coming across as overly aggressive. And don’t forget to polish your LinkedIn profile – it’s not just about what you send; a well-rounded, professional profile builds trust and makes prospects more likely to accept your connection requests.
Tracking and Improving Campaign Performance
After launching your ABM campaign, the real work begins: analyzing its performance, making strategic tweaks, and fine-tuning your approach. Closely’s integrated analytics make this process more manageable and effective.
Reviewing Key Performance Metrics
Your campaign’s progress is best understood through the metrics displayed on Closely’s dashboard. Pay attention to critical ABM indicators like connection acceptance rates, message engagement, reply rates, and conversions. These numbers reveal how well your outreach resonates with your target accounts. For instance, if connection requests are being ignored, it might mean your targeting needs fine-tuning or your personalization efforts could use a boost. Similarly, tracking the journey from initial contact to qualified leads can help you pinpoint where your follow-up strategies might need adjusting.
Closely’s dashboard provides real-time updates, helping you spot trends quickly. Maybe engagement spikes on specific days or varies across industries – these insights can guide your decisions on when to send messages or how to adjust your tone for different audiences.
Improving Messages and Touch Sequences
If certain touchpoints aren’t performing as expected, it’s time to revisit your messaging strategy. Analyze low-engagement messages and consider tweaking their content or timing. Personalizing your outreach – such as referencing a prospect’s recent company news or addressing industry-specific challenges – can significantly improve engagement.
Striking the right balance in your touch sequence is key. You want to stay on your prospect’s radar without overwhelming them. Test different sequence lengths and message formats to see what works best. Experiment with small changes, like reworking subject lines, rephrasing opening sentences, or tweaking your call-to-action. Even minor adjustments can lead to noticeable improvements in engagement.
Using Data for Ongoing Improvement
Once you’ve refined your messaging and touchpoints, take a systematic approach to reviewing performance data. Regularly analyze your results to identify what’s working and what isn’t. Go beyond the surface-level metrics by segmenting your analysis – look at how factors like company size, industry, job title, or location impact engagement. These deeper insights can help you refine your targeting and focus on the segments that respond best to your outreach.
Don’t overlook the value of qualitative feedback. Pay attention to responses from prospects, as they often reveal pain points, objections, or emerging needs. This feedback can guide you in addressing common concerns, like budget constraints or ROI expectations, and help you refine your messaging further.
Documenting your successes is equally important. Create a playbook of effective message templates, optimal timing strategies, and personalization techniques that have delivered results. Keep track of engagement patterns that align with conversions so you can replicate these strategies in future campaigns.
The secret to sustained ABM success lies in treating every campaign as an opportunity to learn. Over time, the insights you gather can give you a competitive edge that grows with each iteration.
Conclusion: ABM Success with Closely
Running effective multi-touch ABM campaigns becomes much simpler when you have the right tools. Closely combines AI-driven automation with detailed analytics, enabling you to create campaigns that deliver real, measurable outcomes for your most important accounts.
Key Steps Summary
The foundation of a successful ABM campaign starts with identifying your high-value accounts and ensuring your prospect data is clean and organized. From there, Closely’s Campaign Manager and AI-powered personalization can help boost response rates by up to 35%[1]. Use AI-generated templates to craft engaging messages and schedule strategic, multi-channel touchpoints to foster meaningful interactions.
As your campaign unfolds, focus on active management and optimization. Launch campaigns, monitor performance in real-time, and handle responses seamlessly through the unified inbox to make sure no opportunity is missed. Closely’s native CRM integrations with platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and GoHighLevel ensure your workflows remain smooth by syncing data automatically.
The real magic happens with ongoing optimization. By regularly analyzing metrics like connection acceptance rates, message engagement, and conversion trends, you can identify what’s working and where there’s room for improvement. Testing different message variations and touchpoint sequences allows you to refine your strategy, creating a cycle of continuous improvement that builds momentum over time.
Final Tips for Getting Results
To maximize your ABM efforts, keep these tips in mind:
- Consistency over perfection: Don’t wait for the “perfect” message or timing. Start with a strong foundation, then refine your strategy as you gather insights from the data.
- Unified inbox for efficiency: Use Closely’s unified inbox to manage conversations smoothly and respond quickly with personalized messages. This centralized approach ensures you stay on top of every interaction across multiple accounts.
- Custom branding matters: High-value prospects expect polished, professional communication. Closely’s white-label options and branded landing pages help build trust and credibility, setting your campaign apart from competitors.
- Patience is key: ABM is a long-term strategy. Larger accounts often have complex decision-making processes, so it’s important to be patient. Use Closely’s analytics to understand engagement patterns and fine-tune your timing, but remember that building strong relationships takes time.
Finally, treat each campaign as a learning opportunity. Document what works, analyze your successes, and refine your approach. Over time, this iterative process will help you scale your results and drive the revenue growth that makes ABM such a powerful strategy.
FAQs
How does Closely use AI to improve multi-touch ABM campaigns?
Closely leverages AI to craft highly personalized outreach for your multi-touch ABM campaigns. By analyzing account data and user behavior, it enables you to deliver tailored messages via LinkedIn and email that connect with your target audience, driving higher engagement and response rates.
With automated personalization, Closely allows you to scale your campaigns without losing relevance. This approach leads to more meaningful interactions, less manual work, and noticeable improvements in both marketing and sales performance.
How can I organize and clean prospect data to improve campaign performance in Closely?
To get the most out of your campaigns in Closely, start by zeroing in on the right target accounts. Make sure your prospect data is accurate, current, and aligned with your campaign objectives. It’s a good idea to routinely review your data to weed out duplicates, outdated entries, or incomplete records.
Consistency is key when it comes to data management practices. Encourage your team to adopt a uniform approach to maintaining data quality. Closely offers tools and features that can help you segment your audience and tailor your outreach to meet the specific needs of each account. Keeping your data clean and well-organized allows you to create more focused campaigns and drive better results.
How do I stay compliant with LinkedIn’s rules when running a multi-touch ABM campaign with Closely?
To ensure your multi-touch ABM campaigns with Closely remain within LinkedIn’s rules, steer clear of using any unauthorized automation tools or methods that imitate human actions. LinkedIn explicitly forbids practices such as automated messaging, scraping profiles, or modifying the platform’s features.
It’s a good idea to routinely check the tools and strategies you’re employing to confirm they comply with LinkedIn’s terms of service. Stick to Closely’s built-in features, using them thoughtfully to keep your campaigns both professional and personalized while respecting LinkedIn’s guidelines.